The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, composed of a chairman and six board members, makes recommendations to the governor about state prisoners' sentences, clemency, parole and supervision. The governor needs support from a majority of the board to alter a prisoner's sentence, which puts considerable weight behind the board's recommendations.

A Texas parole commissioner has been indicted for tampering with a government record after a lawyer complained that at least five inmates were denied parole after she falsely wrote they had refused to sit for required interviews. If convicted, Pamela Freeman could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Jon Buice has served more than 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the 1991 murder of 27-year-old Paul Broussard. His lawyer alleges that an unknown lawmaker obtained confidential disciplinary records and shared them with advocates for Broussard’s family in 2011 when the inmate was denied parole.

The Travis County district attorney’s office’s Public Integrity Unit is reviewing evidence that suggests a state lawmaker illegally released an inmate’s disciplinary file to a victims’ rights advocate in an effort to prevent a high-profile convicted murderer’s release from prison.

Amid questions about whether she and three other San Antonio were wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls, Anna Vasquez will be released on parole Friday. Vasquez, who maintains her innocence, has been in prison since 2000.

Advocates in Houston are hoping to make parole more difficult for anyone convicted of injuring a child. They plan to pursue legislation to allow the Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny reviews of parole eligibility for up to five years in these cases.

Advocates for inmate Donald Rash, who suffers numerous medical problems, argue that he should be granted parole. They say the state is wasting millions on health care for infirm and elderly inmates who no longer pose a threat to society. But some in the criminal justice system worry inmates will experience recover and return to crime.

The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday ordered a lower court to review a death penalty case that involved a psychologist reprimanded last year for using unscientific methods to determine that defendants were intellectually competent enough to face capital punishment.

Root on the end of Rick Perry's presidential campaign, Murphy on what happens to his campaign cash, Ramsey on his next act, Ramshaw, Aaronson, Murphy, Chang and Seger interactively chart the rise and fall of his run, Aguilar talks Juárez violence with a documentary filmmaker, Galbraith on the tug-of-war over surface water, Grissom and Murphy on three decades of capital punishment in Texas, Hamilton and Aaronson on our workforce needs in 2018 and Tan on the state's much-reduced list of women's health clinics: The best of our best content from January 16-20, 2012.

Thirty-five years ago today, the state of Utah restarted the death penalty in the United States when Gary Gilmore was executed. Texas followed suit, reinstating capitol punishment in 1982. Since that year, Texas has executed 477 men and women, more than any other state. And there are more than 300 men and women in Texas awaiting execution now.

As we prepare to ring in the new year, we take a look back at some of our-viewed videos of 2011. With Gov. Rick Perry on the presidential campaign trail, viewers scrutinized his past interviews and his infamous debate gaffes. Cyclist Lance Armstrong and radio host Alex Jones made your list of favorites, too.

Michael Morton's wrongful conviction illustrates the best and worst of science in the courtroom, the judge said when he dismissed the murder charge that put Morton in prison for 25 years. Advancements in science are leading to exonerations like Morton's, but criminal justice advocates say so-called junk science remains a problem.

Leading a national downward trend in the use of the death penalty, Texas executed just 13 prisoners so far in 2011, the lowest number in more than a decade. And juries meted out only eight new death sentences last year, the same low figure as in 2010, according to information released Thursday by the Texas Defender Service.

The Legislature will soon begin the so-called sunset review process for the Department of Criminal Justice and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The review, as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, has already attracted the attention of advocacy groups looking to change the state's criminal justice system.

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied the appeal of Texas death row inmate Duane Buck. His lawyers argued that he deserved a retrial because psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano told jurors in 1997 that the fact Buck is black meant he was more likely to be violent in the future.

In our nonscientific survey of the state's governmental and political insiders, we asked about big problems, immigration, the death penalty, public education and whether Texans would vote for a Mormon if they agreed with that candidate on issues.

Since convicted murderer Hank Skinner was sent to death row, Texas has passed one of the strongest post-conviction DNA laws in the U.S.; 45 inmates have been exonerated. Skinner says DNA tests could prove his innocence — but the courts have repeatedly rejected his appeals. Now he faces execution Wednesday.

The insiders answered questions from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll for the second week in a row, this time on the death penalty, education, top issues facing Texas, and whether the people they know would vote for a Mormon candidate with whom they agree on issues.

Right now, the Texas governor can grant pardons only to convicted felons, but as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, a constitutional amendment up for vote this year could give people convicted of more minor crimes the chance to ask for reprieves.

A Gray County District Court today denied DNA testing that death row inmate Hank Skinner has been seeking for a decade. Skinner's lawyers plan to appeal the decision. His execution is scheduled for Wednesday.

More than one in five Texas voters say most of the people they know would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate even if they agreed with him or her on the issues, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.

The Texas Youth Commission terminated its contract Friday with a psychologist who testified repeatedly in death penalty cases that Hispanic and black men were more likely to be dangerous in the future.

Following a hearing today in federal court in Amarillo, a lawyer for death row inmate Hank Skinner said it will likely be up to the state courts to decide a fight over DNA testing in his case. Skinner is scheduled to be executed Nov. 9.

Michael Morton sits beside his mother, Patricia Morton, during an emotional press conference after a judge agreed to release him on personal bond after he spent nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife.

Since 1994, DNA tests have exonerated 44 Texas inmates. Michael Morton, released from prison last week after 25 years, will almost certainly be the 45th. But defense lawyers and Morton’s advocates argue that under antiquated Texas discovery laws, the alleged injustices that robbed him of a quarter of a century of his life could still happen today.

Michael Morton, who served 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife Christine, will now be released. The dramatic development occurred after years of resistance from Williamson County prosecutors to allow the DNA testing that cleared Morton — and that suggests that the real killer murdered again 16 months later.

Aaronson on the rise in the state's unemployment rate, Aguilar on the push to mandate use of an electronic employment verification program, Galbraith on fears about the drought's impact on lake levels, Grissom on the latest in the Duane Buck case, Hamilton on the possible end of physics (academically speaking), Murphy updates our public employee pay app, Ramsey on David "Mitt" Dewhurst, Ramshaw on Rick Perry's campaign swing through Virginia and Iowa, Root on the deletion of gubernatorial emails and M. Smith on the teaching of safe sex where you'd least expect it: The best of our best content from Sept. 12-16, 2011.